ASUS A7M266-D & Athlon XP-M Project

[StarTraveller]

I started a thread at the official AMD support forums because I wanted to dig into using 35W desktop replacement Athlon XP-M processors for my ASUS A7M266-D motherboard.

http://forums.amd.com/index.php?showtopic=19446

I ended up answering all my questions myself and since I didn't get much response there I figured that you might as reap the benefits from my searching today. I'm going to copy the thread (all posts are my own) here so we don't have to visit the forum just to read what I wrote.

[StarTraveller]

Long post ahead - hopefully, it will be worth the time .

I have an ASUS A7M266-D running with two Athlon MP 1600+ (1.4GHz) processors, but now I want to quiet it down because really that box is anything, but quiet despite my best efforts to use low noise accessories. The computer has been used as a workstation, but will now be switched to server and multimedia center duty.

For now this project is still at the research stage, but I hope to order some parts and begin the project in a month or two.

Current configuration
Case: Chieftec Dragon Tower
PSU: Seasonic Super Tornado 400
Cooling: 2 x Thermalright SLK800A heatsinks & PAPST 8412N/2GM fans
Motherboard: ASUS A7M266-D
CPUs: 2 x AMD Athlon MP 1600+
Memory: 512MB Kingston ValueRAM PC2100 Registered ECC (CL2.5)
Storage Controller: Adaptec AHA-2940U2W
Harddisk drive: 18.4GB Quantum Atlas 10K-II
Videocard: 64MB Sapphire All-In-Wonder Radeon 9000 Pro

Several things are going to be replaced because they are either outdated or noisy or both. Some things, like memory are just going to be expanded (with a 1GB Kingston ValueRAM PC2100 Registered ECC (CL2.5) module).

The hardisk drive runs both hot and noisy so it's going to be retired for sure. It will (together with the SCSI controller) be replaced by a pair of 74GB Western Digital Raptors connected to an Adaptec Serial ATA RAID 1210SA. Furthermore my current server will be donating its two 180GB IBM/Hitachi Deskstar 180GXP (8MB cache) harddisk drives.

The CPUs aren't exactly low power either and the heat output causes the otherwise so silent PSU to accelerate to untolerable (to me, anyway ) noise levels. Depending on what I can learn about these blessed Athlon XP-M processors then I will replace the two Athlon MP processors with either one or two 35W desktop replacement CPUs.

This thread here was a lot of help to me when working out which CPU to throw my love at (thanks to Greyhound for the great information! ). The choice was the AXMD2400FJQ4C . It is, of course, my hope that I shall be able to finally throttle down the speed of the fans on the CPU coolers. Not entirely unrealistic as the current Athlon MP 1600+ processors run at up to 62.8W each (source).

The motherboard won't allow me to specify the multiplier, but I have been told that the selection could also be accomplished by "wire tricking" the CPU (e.g. connecting certain pins to each other using a thin piece of wire). I'm quite familiar with this as I have performed similar mods in the past on Pentium III CPUs (yes, I wrote that article ).

I still need to dig up information on which pins to connect, though, so any help here would be much appreciated!

As for SMP support, things are more unclear . I have heard of people running two modded Athlon XP-M processors in dual CPU motherboards, but I have also heard that it's not always with full stability. Basically, I'm assuming that the Athlon XP-M processors can be modded to gain SMP support similarly to the regular Athlon XP processors and from what I've read in these forums so far the processors seem to even come from the same wafers with the only difference being how well they perform in subsequent testing (confirmation would be much appreciated).

If someone could recommend a good source or guide on how to perform this slightly more complicated (and probably much more permanent) mod then it would be greatly appreciated!

I have not yet googled for it so it's not unlikely that I'll answer part of the question myself. It would, however, still be nice to hear some experiences with various methods and approaches.

The choice of Athlon XP-M processors is not to be able to achieve great overclocks, but rather just to be able to put together a system that I can leave on 24/7 without having worry about noise and power consumption.

Even one Athlon XP-M 2400+ would provide me with plenty of processing power (two is mostly for show) so in order to further reduce the power consumption and heat output I may actually play around with underclocking (sacrilege! hehe) them also! I may also abandon the idea of using two CPUs if it proves to be too much or a hassle and/or risk to go that way.

I hope some of the experts here can provide som assistance.

[StarTraveller]

I just located a very interesting and useful page:
OverClocked Inside's Interactive Pin-Mod guide v1.2 for AMD Athlon XP, T-Bred and Barton CPUs

Basically, it's an interactive guide that can display which pins needs to be connected to achieve a certain voltage or multiplier. In my experience it's by far the easiest to connect pinholes on the socket rather than actual pins on the CPU. The interactive guide offers to display it both ways so it's really a neat utility.

Here's a screenshot showing which pinholes I need to connect to choose a 13.5 multiplier to run the AXMD2400FJQ4C at the stock speed of 1.8GHz:
Connected pinholes for an Athlon XP-M (Barton) @ 1.8 GHz (13.5 x 133 MHz)

[StarTraveller]

A useful page on the other matter at hand (SMP capability):
Fab51: Bridge configuration of the Athlon XP

These guys seem to have things under control when it comes to understanding how the bridges work, but of course I wouldn't mind confirmation from some regulars here .

Specifically, they have this to offer with regards to the L5 bridges:
L5 : Mode of operation

It seems that Athlon XP-M processors already have the L5[3] bridge (used to indicate SMP capability) closed along with L5[2] (used to indicate it's a mobile CPU). Other sources seem to confirm that this is the case:
Forum post at Short-Media Forums
Same thread as above, but a different post with a different picture
Forum post at PC Perspective with pictures of several CPUs.
- Actually the guy in the latter link is building a setup very similar to mine and was successful!

Would I be correct to assume that I would simply have to cut the L5[2] bridge to change the processors recognition from Mobile til MP?

If it's simply a matter of cutting a bridge then I would almost for sure take a crack at installing two CPUs.

I would love to hear from people who already owns Athlon XP-M processors if the L5[3] bridge is indeed closed by default.

Besides the desire to hear people confirm this then this thread has practically answered the questions it set out to do . I hope it can be of some use to people with dual processor motherboards .

[StarTraveller]

For you reference I can inform you that the AXMD2400FJQ4C has the following specs (datasheets are not publicly available):

AMD Athlon XP-M 2400+ (1.8 GHz)
35W max. thermal output
OPGA (Socket A)
1.35 V
100º C max. temp
128 KB L1 cache
512 KB L2 cache (Barton core)
266 MHz FSB

[pointreyes]

Hmmm, why is the thread at amd forums in the Notebooks and Laptops forum?

Have you checked the forums.pcper.com? They seem to have more duallie mods than the amd forum does.
http://forums.pcper.com/forumdisplay.php?f=41

[StarTraveller]

Google actually sent me over to AMDMB / PC Perspective and I ended up finding a thread with a very similar project.

As to why it's in the mobile section at AMD's support forums then that's because you have to view everything from a CPU perspective there...

[StarTraveller]

I've ordered the stuff for the first stage of the server migration/upgrade. Yesterday I ordered:

1 x Adaptec Serial ATA RAID 1210SA

2 ports
RAID 0 & 1
JBOD

2 x 74 GB Western Digital Raptor

10,000 RPM
8 MB cache
4.5/5.9 ms seek time (read/write)
up to 72 MB/s STR

2 x AMD Athlon XP-M 2400+

AXMD2400FJQ4C
1.8 GHz
128 KB L1 cache
512 KB L2 cache
Socket A
1.35V => 35 W max

So far today I've received the Adaptec controller. I should get the rest of the stuff tonight . I won't have time to work on this until the weekend, though.

[StarTraveller]

I know how much you guys fancy pictures so here's one of the contents of the Adaptec package.

Besides the card, Adaptec includes an installation guide and other papers, a bootable CD-ROM with RAID management software, drivers, and documentation, 2 SATA cables (1 m), and a low profile bracket (in addition to the standard height bracket on the card).

[StarTraveller]

I have just picked up the rest of the stuff at the post office .

The drive S/N's are only 20 numbers apart (WMAKE10710xx) and they're from 11 January 2004 - made in Malaysia.

The processors' S/N's are only 187 numbers apart (T852213C40xxx). Batch number or whatever AMD calls it is AQYHA0413VPKW (so that would be week 13 2004) and assembled in Malaysia.

Stay tuned for pictures and fun .

[StarTraveller]

As promised - pictures of the upgrades (see attachments).

I hope I'll have time to play with installing everything later today. I won't be modding the CPU's at first because I want to see how/if they run in SMP out of the box. Initial research seems to indicate that cutting the L5[2] bridge may not be required at all.

I'm a little sad :sad: that there has been so little interest in this forum regarding SMP and running Athlon XP-M's in regular motherboards (dual boards in particular). I had hoped that we could have a huge and interesting discussion right here in this thread .

Picture 1: The whole family of upgrades (including the RAID card).
Picture 2: The two processors that are going to work soon .
Picture 3: Close up of one of the processors (as mentioned, they're completely identical save for the last three digits in the S/N).

[beSTEP]

Originally Posted by StarTraveller

I'm a little sad :sad: that there has been so little interest in this forum regarding SMP and running Athlon XP-M's in regular motherboards (dual boards in particular). I had hoped that we could have a huge and interesting discussion right here in this thread .

I'm interested!


I have a A7M266-D with dual MP1600's and have been thinking about going Athlon XP-M, but I have not been able to find anyone with success (or failure) doing it.

I'm looking forward to seeing how your project goes. I agree that a single XP-M might be more than enough, if it gets complicated going dual. My biggest complaint with the dual MP1600's is that my P4 2.4 O/C to 2.7 out runs it badly and the 64-bit slot on the A7M266-D doesn't run at 64-bits when I use my Adaptec 39320 or my MegaRAID Express.

Good luck this weekend!

-be

[DeMenAce]

Originally Posted by StarTraveller

As promised - pictures of the upgrades (see attachments).
I'm a little sad :sad: that there has been so little interest in this forum regarding SMP and running Athlon XP-M's in regular motherboards (dual boards in particular). I had hoped that we could have a huge and interesting discussion right here in this thread

Sorry, I just saw this tonight mate!

[Ozzie]

I'm interested too!!

Maybe I could breathe some life back into my dually if you find the 'trick' to making those mobiles work...I could finally get close to my 5 gig mark...

[StarTraveller]

Originally Posted by beSTEP

I have a A7M266-D with dual MP1600's and have been thinking about going Athlon XP-M, but I have not been able to find anyone with success (or failure) doing it.

There are quite a few reports over at PC Perspective and they're almost all positive. I know that bigtoe had some issues running XP-M's in his IWILL MPX, but it seems to be exception rather than the rule that it doesn't work.

It appears that running the CPU's unmodded would work in most cases, but the CPU's would not be recognized properly (just a name thing, though). The name string should be a proper Athlon MP if the L5[2] bridge is cut, though, as the chip is then effectively just a regular Athlon MP. I won't cut the L5[2] bridge at first so I will let you know if it's possible to just drop them in as is.

Hopefully, I get some time to install the CPU's tonight or something. Being swamped in work sucks when you have the hardware just waiting to be installed, hehe.